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Syrian airstrikes target rebel strongholds

Syrian warplanes launched 60 airstrikes against rebel targets around the country on Monday and conducted what activists said were the most intense air raids on the suburbs of Damascus since the uprising began 19 months ago.

A Syrian rebel fighter looks at smoke billowing from a bus that caught on fire after a regime sniper allegedly shot at it in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday. (JAVIER MANZANO / AFP)

Residents search the rubble of a building damaged after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to Syria's President Bashar Assad fired missiles at Erbeen, near Damascus on Monday. (HANDOUT / REUTERS)

By Bassem MroueThe Associated Press

Mon., Oct. 29, 2012

BEIRUT—Syrian warplanes launched 60 airstrikes against rebel targets around the country on Monday and conducted what activists said were the most intense air raids on the suburbs of Damascus since the uprising began 19 months ago.

A government official said a car bomb killed 10 people on the outskirts of the city. TV footage showed firemen fighting the blaze amid wide destruction after parts of balconies fell on cars parked on a residential street. As smoke billowed, a woman was seen running away with children from the area of the blast and electricity cables dangled from poles. Activists said the air raids were launched both before and after the car bomb and were still under way.

Monday was supposed to be the fourth and final day of a UN-backed cease-fire to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest periods on the Muslim calendar. But the truce was violated almost as soon as it was supposed to take effect on Friday and violence continued unabated over the holiday weekend. Activists said at least 150 people were killed Sunday, a toll similar to previous daily casualty tolls.

The army warned late Sunday night that it will strike “remnants of terrorists with an iron fist” after they “repeatedly violated the cease-fire.” The regime of President Bashar Assad often refers to those waging the uprising as “terrorists.”

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Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said there were at least 15 air raids on the suburbs early Monday. The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes carried out at least six air raids on Damascus suburbs including Rankous and Harasta. It said there are intense clashes in those areas as troops try to regain control from the rebels.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said airstrikes on Monday were by far higher than on any other day since the conflict began in March last year.

He estimated there were more than 60 airstrikes nationwide by early afternoon Monday.

“Members of the Free Syrian Army are shooting at the planes without succeeding in shooting them down,” said Saeed referring to the main rebel group fighting Assad's forces. “The air raids today are unusual in their intensity, although we have seen worse days.”

A Syrian official said the car bomb in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana also wounded 41 people and heavily damaged shops and apartments in the area heavily inhabited by Christians and members of the Druse minority sect.

The Observatory also reported clashes and shelling in other parts of the country including the northwestern province of Idlib that borders Turkey, where it said warplanes carried out 11 air raids on several villages. Amateur videos showed warplanes in the skies, then giant mushroom clouds of smoke after the missiles hit.

On Friday, at least 15 people were killed in a Damascus car bomb, state media said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep disappointment at the collapse of the cease-fire and urged more unity from the international community. Speaking in South Korea, he said the UN is trying to ease Syria's humanitarian woes and find a political solution to the crisis.

He called for an immediate halt to the fighting and said other countries and the United Nations need to do more to help.

“I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting. This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed,” he said. “I remain committed to doing all I can to make this happen. As long as the international community remains at odds, the needs, attacks and suffering will only grow.”

UN International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Moscow that the failure of the cease-fire will not discourage him and his supporters.

“So we will continue to work as hard as we possibly can, in co-operation with everybody inside of Syria and outside of Syria to bring the level of violence, put an end to it,” he said.

In Turkey, state-run Anadolu news agency said the Turkish forces fired artillery in response to a stray shell fired from Syria that landed across the northern border. The shell landed some 300 metres (yards) away from the Turkish border village of Besaslan. No one was injured, but a power line was destroyed.

With the unraveling of the cease-fire, it's unclear what the international community can do next. The holiday truce marked the first attempt in six months to reduce the bloodshed in Syria, where activists say more than 35,000 people have been killed in 19 months.

In Turkey, about 150 members of the Syrian opposition met Monday to plan for a post-Assad future, discussing the immediate challenges of managing parts of the northern Idlib province, sections of the city of Aleppo, the country's largest, and other areas that are held by rebels. Long-term planning will focus on constitutional and legal reform, laws on elections and political parties and how to build a modern national army.

Delegates to the three-day meeting at a hotel on the outskirts of Istanbul included members of Syrian rebel groups as well as the country's Kurdish minority. Abdelbaset Sieda, president of the Syrian National Council, said the Syrian regime, which he described as a “criminal group,” was losing its grip on power and that the opposition must be prepared to rebuild the devastated country.

“The transitional phase has started now,” Sieda said. “That's what we're witnessing clearly today in many of our cities and villages.”

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